Today started off beautifully. Cape Reinga is stunning. The lighthouse, perched just up from the water in a spot surrounded by rolling hills, sand dunes and steep cliffs is the perfect place to start an adventure.
The drive to get there had shown me what riding to the turnoff looked like and I was excited about the ride. The hills along the way kept things interesting and it was hard not stopping every 5 minutes to take a pic.
20km in and I was at the turnoff expecting a tough 5 hours or so along a beach.
The gravel road gave way to a stream with massive sand dunes on one side and thick bush on the other and the idea is to follow this stream down. Within a minute my shoes were off and I was pushing my bike through this very pretty little ravine. And I kept pushing for quite a while, 40 minutes to be precise, by the end of which I was happy to hit 90 mile beach and get back on the bike.
The sand was nicely packed and my bike really wasn’t sinking at all, my only concern was the wind was starting to pick up and there were some pretty big clouds gathering.
I soon found myself riding in a downpour with that packed sand slowly giving way and winds in the region of 15 knots blowing in my face. By this stage my average km/h were already plummeting and I was now at about 12km/h. Luckily the rain gave way to some blistering sunshine and I was quickly digging out the sunscreen. The wind however, was relentless and getting stronger.
Despite its name, I was actually looking at 75-80km of sand (not 90 miles) and needed to do it within 6h or the tide would have eaten up the packed sand and I would find myself pushing my bike. 30km in and the wind was now ridiculous and I was averaging about 8.5km/h.
Clearly I wasn’t going to make it and the nearest turn off was another 20km down the beach so I waved a guy with a truck down who was actually heading in the other direction. He was a bit of a legend and felt my pain as he had experienced this wind before on a bike and told me I could hitch a ride with him on the way back once he had done a little fishing.
So I sat down, ate my lunch with not a single person around and read for a little bit before getting back on the bike and doing another 10k before our man drove past and I chucked my bike in the back.
We picked another cyclist up about 5km further down who had spent 3 days on the beach already and had run out of just about all supplies. When we caught up with him he was pushing his rig along and not going anywhere. He was clearly in a bad way and massively grateful for the ride.
So the “last” 40km were a breeze and I soon found myself in Ahipara – and what a beautiful place it is. Tucked away at the end of the beach it was the perfect place for a swim and some more beach time!
Tomorrow is a hilly one and although the official route suggests opting for 22km of gravel, I’m going to be somewhat cautious and stick to the road.
Bish on a Bike 